Gary Gensler’s recent interview with the New York Mag (NYMAG) has once again disturbed the crypto industry.
The SEC Chairman reiterated that he considers all crypto assets and all transitions to be subject to US securities laws, in addition to spot Bitcoin trading.
Although crypto assets have yet to be officially classified, Gensler said that “everything that isn’t Bitcoin” is a security.
In his opinion, the people behind all the crypto projects and networks are sneakily trying to lure investors into buying the tokens.
@WuBlockchain, a Chinese reporter of important crypto news mainly in Asia, tweeted the following:
“There are people behind these cryptocurrencies using a variety of complex and legally opaque mechanisms, but at the most basic level, they are trying to promote their tokens and attract investors.”
He added another tweet saying that:
“Gary Gensler said in an interview with NYMAG: pretty much every sort of crypto transaction already falls under the SEC’s jurisdiction except spot transactions in Bitcoin itself and the actual purchase or sale of goods or services with cryptos, ‘everything other than Bitcoin’.”
Financial Lawyers Disagree
Gensler argued that, in essence, “these tokens are securities because there is a pool in the middle, and the public anticipates gains based on that pool.”
Blockchain Association attorney and policy director Jake Chervinsky argued that Gensler’s words or opinion are not the law. On February 26, he argued the following:
“Chair Gensler may have prejudged that every digital asset aside from Bitcoin is a security, but his opinion is not the law. The SEC lacks authority to regulate any of them until and unless it proves its case in court. For each asset, every single one, individually, one at a time.”
The idea was echoed by SEC Commissioner Hester Pierce, who urged Congress to speed up the implementation of the legislation and the official classification of crypto assets. Until then, regulators like the SEC will take matters into their own hands with these enforcement actions, as they have been enthusiastically doing this year.
“Using enforcement actions to tell people what the law is in an emerging industry is not an efficient or fair way to regulate,” Hester said earlier this month, in response to the SEC’s crackdown on Kraken.
Until there is a robust regulatory framework for digital assets in the US, the SEC will continue its war against cryptocurrencies, whether it has jurisdiction or not.
Crypto Market Insights
Crypto markets are rising again this Monday morning in Asia. Total market capitalization rose 2.4% to $1.13 trillion; however, it has remained within a relatively tight range for most of the month.
Bitcoin had gained 2.2% to trade at $23,600, while Ethereum was up 3.3% to hit $1,644, according to CoinGecko.
By Audy Castaneda
